Hey guys, does anyone know what happened to the 2012 thread? I saw people commenting on it just an hour ago, but it appears to have disappeared. Did someone accidentally delete it? A lot of work went into that and there was some good discussion going on. I just checked all of the sub-forums and it looks like it was not moved either.

Anyway, this is earlier than I was planning and I am hoping to start up a dedicated website for this topic, but since there is interest now to discuss this topic (and the thread that was being used an hour ago is gone), here is a new thread! There is no poll this year for what will take the top spot because we already know what it will be. As with the last few years, I will aggregate best-of lists from critics who are at least somewhat reputable.

There is early interest because for many, the quality television season is over. I know that if I had to make my top ten list right now, no series from this last quarter would place on it. I am hoping that Masters of Sex, Brooklyn Nine-Nine and/or The Crazy Ones steps it up to boot Mad Men‘s sixth season from my bottom slot.

My apologies for not actually finishing last year’s aggregate. Real
life got in the way; HitFix thankfully stepped up, so we do not have a
gap year, although it is a bit inconsistent with other years because
they were not as comprehensive.

It will not even be close for Breaking Bad. Game of Thrones should be solid for second place since it won best drama from both critics groups. I never really heard anything but praise for Orange is the New Black, so that is my guess for third. The sixth season of Mad Men
is either the second or third largest disparity in opinion between the
critics and Gold Derby that I have witnessed, so I think that it will
still do well at fourth place. (The other two are the first seasons of The Crazy Ones and Boardwalk Empire.) The Americans led the TCA nominations, so that should round out the top five.

Masters of Sex is not beloved, but it is airing at the right time. Parks and Recreation should benefit from a lack of quality
sitcoms on the air: I feel like the critics will go out of their way to
recognize a token comedy. House of Cards has the narrative. The Walking Dead has somehow never missed the top ten, so it will be in the lower half again; the ratings success story helps. They gave Homeland
second place last year, even though that included the second half of
the second season, although we should acknowledge that printing
deadlines and a desire to be “first!” prevented the later episodes of
the season to factor into some of their lists. Homeland is running out of goodwill, but it has enough to rank in the top ten.

Watch out for unexpected support for Downton Abbey, especially since this will
mostly be for the third instead of fourth season. In the 2012 thread, Icky mentioned Enlightened, but I think that if that had real support, it would have gotten some critics’ nominations. probablyROB mentioned Justified, but I think that the critics have largely moved on from that show. Denis mentioned Southland, but that has never had broad support. Does anyone want to repost their thoughts?

I agree that Breaking Bad and Game of Thrones being #1 and #2. Third place should be Masters of Sex followed by Orange if the New Black and Justified rounding out the top 5. #6-#10 could be a mixture of Mad Men, Veep, Enlightened, Orphan Black, House of Card, The Americans, Good Wife, Broadchurch, and Rectified. I think since The Returned was released last year, it will be disqualified

Hey guys, does anyone know what happened to the 2012 thread? I saw people commenting on it just an hour ago, but it appears to have disappeared. Did someone accidentally delete it? A lot of work went into that and there was some good discussion going on. I just checked all of the sub-forums and it looks like it was not moved either.

I was in the middle of posting a reply and poof the thread disappeared. Blah.

So the main thing I get a sense of is that if you scroll the Internet and accumulate as many lists as possible, acclaimed sci-fi/fantasy shows get a stronger foothold i.e. Lost/Game of Thrones. That makes sense, given who the loudest Internet fans are. I’ll continue using MC as the most accurate measure of critics, and/or TCA.

The problem with Metacritic is that they award three points for first place, two points for second place and then one point for third through tenth place. Third place should not be synonymous with tenth place if you ask me.

I personally think maybe even getting a boost for 2nd place is too much. Esp when there are a bunch of critics who think they’re too good to rank their top 10 lists.

I clicked on your link and you count 1 point for every show on an unranked list when you give, say, 5 points for 6th place, which seems iffier to me. If I were to accumulate a list and felt the need to assign a point value for rankings 1-10, I would give every show on a totally unranked list 5.5 points so the total would be 55 points just like a ranked list…but I wouldn’t assign values for 1-10 in the first place.

I am not really the one who assigns the values on a ranked list, though. The critic who ranked the list did that. Awarding 5.5 points to items on unranked lists could artificially inflate shows, but awarding a single point to items on unranked lists recognizes them without the possibility of giving something excessive weight. The bottom line is that if you just go by counting how many lists something appears on, you will theoretically get a good idea of what people like, but I am trying to find out what people consider to be the best.

Like I said in the previous thread the lists this year will be extremely varied. So, determining beyond the top five or six is very difficult. Enlightened may be on only 1/4 of the lists, but it’ll likely be high on the lists it appears on, so it’s definitely one to look out for. Maybe House of Cards or The Good Wife won’t do as well as I think they will. Justified and Southland are wildcards. This past season of Southland was its last and it was also it’s best season, so it could crack the top 15. Justified’s buzz has dwindled, but there’s bound to be some sense-having critics who put it on their lists. Person of Interests and Elementary are two shows I’m looking to potentially shake things up. Boardwalk Empire could see a surprising tick up or not. Don’t see B99 or The Crazy Ones doing so hot.

Top twenty guess (I’m leaving out mini-series and TV movies, because there are too many variables, and I just don’t think they should count on an aggregated list)

1. Breaking Bad2. Game of Thrones3. Orange is the New Black4. The Americans 5. The Good Wife6. House of Cards7. Mad Men8. Master of Sex9. Veep10. Arrested Development 11. The Walking Dead12. New Girl13. Broadchurch 14. Parks and Recreation15. Enlightened 16. Scandal 17. The Returned18. Downton Abbey 19. Orphan Black20. Homeland(the other shows that could make the top twenty) The Big Bang Theory/Justified/Southland/Person of Interest/Boardwalk Empire/American Horror Story